


Haru

by Kharon



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen, Genderbending, Konoha Village, Male!Sakura, m!Sakura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-03 21:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14005281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kharon/pseuds/Kharon
Summary: Sakurabata Haruis the son of civilians who gets put on a team with Uchiha Sasuke and loudmouth orphan Uzumaki Naruto. Their sensei is a lazy, batshit crazy jounin who wants to fail them. What can go wrong?If Sakura was a boy.





	1. Team 7

**Author's Note:**

> What if Sakura was a boy? There's a lot of Narukos out there, and even a few female Sasukes, but I only found two "Sakura is a boy" stories so far. If you can't find it, write it, and that's what I'm doing. 
> 
> I mixed up the kanji for this. Since there isn't really a male version of the name Sakura, I swapped the first part of her surname to make the male first name Haru, and put the Sakura part into his surname instead. So Haruno Sakura becomes Sakurabata Haru. (The _bata_ part is the same kanji as the _hata_ from Hatake, if anyone cares.)

There are three types of children at the ninja academy: clan brats, kids with shinobi in the family and _civilian_ kids.

Sakurabata Haru has been aware of that divide since he joined the Academy almost four years ago. He can't not be, since he belongs to the last group, the group that _doesn't_ belong – because the fact that his parents are an accountant and a carpenter has made him a second-class student from the first day.

When he was eight, eager to become a ninja, celebrating the fact that they got into the Academy with Tojo, he didn't immediately notice how harsh the divide really is. They were so happy to have been accepted, happy at the prospect of becoming defender of their village, their people, that they didn't see the nuances, the differences between one kid and the other.

Now, with twelve, Haru has been without his best friend at the Academy for one and a half years. He's had time enough to notice that no matter what the teachers say, they aren't equal.

Of the 30 remaining students only four come from civilian families. Eight are clan brats. 17 come from families with at least one ninja in them. The last is Uzumaki Naruto.

Haru isn't blind, nor deaf, nor stupid. Naruto is an orphan, he comes from none of the prominent clans of Konohagakure, his grades are the worst of all of them... the kids from the ninja families hate him, but the clan kids – who look through everyone who isn't one of them – treat him almost like one of their own.

He's watched the blond boy for a year now, but still hasn't figured out what makes him so special. Naruto is loud, obnoxious, and gives a shit about lessons, but his taijutsu is above average, he's clever _if he wants to be_ and literally everyone knows him.

When he first noticed that something was off about Naruto – a few months after Tojo had to leave because his mother died – he asked his parents about anyone called Uzumaki, but neither had ever heard the name.

Haru doesn't really care for Naruto, but it irks him that the orphan boy that most of the class hates with a passion is treated more like a potential shinobi than him or Nanami, or Satoru, or Hideo.

They are just the civilian kids.

No matter how good Haru was, he always just got a curt nod, a star under his test, a barely-there smile.

He is one of the best students, but he knows that it isn't through any effort on their teacher's part. The only one that really tried to explain _ordinary_ stuff – what ninja think is common knowledge – to them was Iruka-sensei. Haru likes him for it, but it also made him hate the other teachers a little more.

Nobody expected him to succeed, to really become a ninja. Even his parents let him join more because they didn't know what to do with him at home than because they believed that he would make it.

In retrospect that's the main reason Haru has come as far as he has.

At first it was him and Tojo, two boys who wanted to become famous protectors of their village, but when his best friend left Haru'd been alone at the Academy. The remaining civilian kids stuck together, but he had never liked any of the others that well.

He had been alone.

Haru had been stubborn even then, though, and the fact that everyone underestimated him had only made him study more and train harder.

Still – even with one of the best written scores in his class, great teamwork skills and average grades in taijutsu and combat – Sakurabata Haru never in a million years expected Iruka-sensei when pronouncing the genin teams to say, "Team Seven: Sakurabata Haru, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."

For a second the classroom is dead silent.

Then Naruto erupts. Before Haru – who for some reason is sitting between the two other boys – can pull him back he has gotten up and starts making a scene.

Haru and Sasuke exchange a look behind his back.

They haven't had much to do with each other during their years at the Academy, but Sasuke helped him with his shuriken jutsu a few times, and sometimes they have sat beside each other during lessons. Haru worked with him on an essay once.

Normally he stuck to Hideo, Satoru and Nanami however, and Sasuke was on his own – everybody knows about the Uchiha Massacre and that it's best to leave the last Uchiha very well alone.

"Now take a break," Iruka interrupts his thoughts, and he is glad for the break they get before being introduced to their Jounin instructors.

The others are all on different teams with kids from ninja families, but when Haru makes their way over to say bye Nanami just walks off.

"She's mad that you go on the team with the Uchiha," Satoru grumbles and rolls his eyes, "Don't know what all the girls like about him."

Haru and Hideo don't know either. Most girls are silly like that though – even Yamanaka Ino, who went to school with Haru and Tojo and is a pretty nice girl actually, is always running after Sasuke and trying to chat with him. He thinks that the Uchiha hates her.

Hideo is in a team with two girls, Asumi and Tamiko, who can't stand each other, and Satoru with a girl none of them remembers the name of and Shiranui Token, who's a laid-back guy Haru wouldn't have minded having in his team _at all_.

Instead he goes back to the classroom after lunch to sit down beside Sasuke again, who mumbles something unintelligible in greeting. Naruto is late as always.

Their sensei however doesn't show up. The teachers of the other teams arrive within fifteen minutes to collect their students, but even an hour later theirs hasn't shown his face.

Iruka-sensei had to go as well and so it's only the three of them left inside the classroom – Haru really should have brought a book.

"Why is our sensei so damn late?" Naruto finally shouts.

Sasuke, predictably, doesn't answer.

"I don't know," Haru says, "Maybe he's still on a mission and they forgot to tell Iruka-sensei."

He doesn't really believe his own words, and Naruto just looks at him funny. He puts his hand on his chin, deep in thought, and looks at Haru like he has never seen him before.

Now that he thinks about it that might the be first full sentence he has exchanged with the other boy in four years of being in the Academy. Huh. Haru is himself a little surprised that you can be in the same class for years without ever talking to each other.

"You," Naruto finally declares, pointing at him, "I like you better than the idiot!"

That's... not what he expected. But while he is still thinking about what it means that Naruto seems to have accepted him so easily, the blond has grabbed the eraser from the chalkboard and placed it in the slit of the sliding door of the classroom.

"That's what you get for being late," he says when he jumps down from the door.

Haru shakes his head and laughs at the cheap trick while Sasuke snorts beside him.

"Like a jounin would fall for such a stupid trap!" he grumbles just a second before the door is pushed open.

They all hold their breaths.

And watch as the eraser hits their sensei right on the head.

"You fell for it, you fell for it!" Naruto immediately begins to chant, laughing. Sasuke and Haru meanwhile look on, both dumbfounded that it actually worked.

Their sensei smiles behind his creepy mask.

"How can I say this? My first impression of you guys is..." he chirps, pretending to think, " _I don't like you._ "

 _"And our first impression of you is that you're and idiot,"_ Haru thinks.

By the looks on their faces Naruto and Sasuke wholeheartedly agree with him on this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haru might seem very different from Sakura. His personality hasn't changed much from being a boy, but the way he grew up did and I wanted to reflect on that. No crush on Sasuke, no outright dislike of Naruto, no best friend Ino... Haru in general is a lot more mentally balanced than Sakura, because he's secure in who he is and what he wants.
> 
> His parents don't "know" Naruto, as I believe that while they know who he is they simply can't put a name on him. If they see him they'll know that he's _that boy_ of course, but until then he's just an unknown teammate.
> 
> Last: Haru talks about 30 students having passed the genin test. Iruka however mentions 27 genin in the manga, which I chose to ignore since we have a Team 10 from their class, which should mean 10*3 new genin.


	2. Hatake Kakashi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 7 gets to know each other. Somewhat.

Their strange sensei leads them up on top of the Academy building. It's a nice place with a rooftop garden where Haru liked to spend his breaks sitting beneath the trees.

The three of them sit down on the steps leading up to the garden.

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves," the jounin finally says.

Haru doesn't trust the man.

He's a perspective kid – old Tamako-sensei complimented him for that once, the only thing she ever said to him – and he remembers their lessons well. A shinobi has to blend in. Among civilians, among foreigners, but also among other ninja.

Hatake Kakashi has silvery grey hair, wears a mask that covers everything but his eyes and has his forehead protector pulled down over his left eye.

There are only two reasons for a shinobi to not blend in: either they are bad at what they do, or they are so notorious that there is no point in trying to keep their identity hidden.

From a jounin Haru usually would have expected the later, but he saw the man fall for a trick Iruka-sensei would have screamed at Naruto for after easily sidestepping it.

Another thing that makes him feel uneasy is the mask itself. Wearing a mask _inside_ one's own village for no apparent reason... it implies distrust in the other Konoha-nin, _his comrades_. He can't read the man's face at all this way, and it makes Hatake's smile look really creepy – like he might snap and kill them any moment.

"What do you want to know?" Haru asks after the silence has stretched on for too long.

The jounin shrugs, "Your likes and dislikes... your dreams for the future and stuff like that."

He sounds bored already – bored with his task, the students that were entrusted to him by the Hokage himself. Haru feels affronted. He knows that it shouldn't be that way, that Hatake Kakashi should _care_ about them.

"Hey hey, wait," Naruto grumbles, "Why don't you introduce yourself to us first?"

That's a valid point and one that Haru didn't expect Naruto of all people to make. He looks at the other boy… and realizes that he doesn't know anything _meaningful_ about Uzumaki Naruto. The teachers all paid special attention to him, he's an orphan, he's loud… and then what?

Confused and a vague bit ashamed he nods his agreement, as does Sasuke a seconds later.

"Me?" their teacher drawls, "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes. My dreams... hm... and I have lots of hobbies..."

It's painfully obvious that he has no interest in the team and it makes Haru mad – he went through four years of the Academy without anyone caring about him, and now he is in a squad under a jounin that is no better.

"Hypocrite," he hisses, low and with enough venom that their teacher's eyes arrow. _Good_. _Let him know that he won't stand for this bullshit_.

Naruto gives him a funny look. "What's a hypocrite?"

To his surprise it's Sasuke who answers. He too gives their sensei a dirty a look.

"It means that someone pretends to be something they aren't, moron," Sasuke explains, and for once there isn't any bite to his insult, "He doesn't care to know about us."

Naruto blinks. Something changes in his face, just for an instant, his cheeky grin dropping to a disappointed frown, before he's instantly covering it up with a scowl.

"You're trying to trick us, old man?" he shouts a second later, "You're supposed to teach us cool ninja stuff, not shit us! Tell us something or we're not gonna say a word about ourselves!"

Hatake first looks at Naruto, who has gotten up and is pointing his finger accusingly at him, and then at Haru and Sasuke, who both have their arms crossed in front of their chests. It's hard to read his expression, but he looks… almost impressed?

The faint outline of a smile shows beneath the cloth of Hatake's mask.

"Ma ma, no need to get jumpy," he reassures them, lifting his hands in the air as if he is innocent, "My hobby is reading and I don't like rain. What I want for the future is to keep you alive, my cute little genin. Now, is that better?"

The gesture neither works on Haru nor on Sasuke, but Naruto seems pleased. He sits back down and nods, satisfied while the others look on in mute silence.

"Good," Hatake says, his smile becoming impossibly wide, and fuck it's creepy as hell how he switches from one emotion to the other in an instant, "Now it's your turn. Let's start on the left."

One dark eye looks at him expectantly, and Haru wonders if he has to start because he called the man out on his bullshit. Most likely. He sighs.

"My name is Sakurabata Haru. My hobbies are playing trivia games and carving wood. I like my best friend Toujirou, sweets and Konoha, and I dislike if people think I'm a bad shinobi just because my parents are civilians," he declares, "My dream for the future is to protect Konoha and prove that I can be one of the best ninja even without a shinobi family."

"Huh," Naruto says, looking at him rather dumbly, "Your parents aren't ninja?"

Nobody has asked him that before – nobody had _the need_ to ask him that, because it's obvious that he doesn't come from a ninja background. He wonders how Naruto himself, who's obviously grown up around ninja, can't tell.

"No," Haru confirms, shaking his head, "My mother works in property management and my Dad 's a carpenter."

He expects a stupid comment, but instead Naruto's face turns solemn.

"Me and the idiot don't have parents at all", he admits, "What does it matter? I'll still be the most awesome shinobi ever!"

The blond laughs confidently and Haru wonders how he can be that cheerful about being an orphan. He'd never spared a thought to Naruto the person, but even then he'd assumed it would a lonely life without any family. Sasuke certainly looked lonely enough at times.

Haru doesn't want to like the boy that got treated more like a shinobi than he ever was, even if Naruto was the class clown, but now that he's sitting beside him it's oddly hard to hate Naruto as a person.

"You go next, then," their sensei tells Naruto, who straightens from his crouched position when the attention shifts to him.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, and I like it even more when Iruka-sensei pays them for me. What I dislike is waiting the 3 minutes it takes for cup ramen to cook, and my dream," he says, grabbing his forehead protector with both hands, grinning, "Is to surpass the Hokage and then have the people of this village acknowledge my existence!"

Haru is surprised about thr amount of times one can say the word _ramen_ in one sentence… then he blinks. _"What does he mean, acknowledge his existence?"_

He looks at Sasuke and their sensei for a clue, but both only watch Naruto with a blank look on their faces. Is he talking about the kids that shunned him at the Academy?

By the sound of it there has to be more to his words than that, but Haru never saw an adult treat Naruto outright badly. Exasperated, yes, hundreds of times, but never dismissive – one simply _can't_ be dismissive of Naruto when he is all in your face.

"My hobbies are..." Naruto continues, deep in thought, "Pranks, I guess."

Hatake-sensei makes a face at that, and then ruffles his own hair, like he is lost for words. _Strange_.

"Okay," he drawls, "And lastly, the one in the middle."

Sasuke puts his head in his hands, his fingers obscuring his mouth, and Haru silently disapproves as it's bad manners to speak on the quiet like that, but it's not like Sasuke would care if he told him so.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and..." he pauses for a moment there, his black eyes fixating first Haru and then Naruto, "I like home-cooked food. For my dreams: I want to resurrect my clan and... to kill a certain man."

The dead look in his eyes makes Haru shiver.

They briefly touched the Uchiha Massacre in history class – Sasuke was notably absent that day – and he remembers that it was one Uchiha Itachi who killed almost his entire clan. The teacher didn't say why though, and now that he thinks about it he wonders how close he was to Sasuke. A cousin, perhaps?

He can't imagine the hell it must have been for Sasuke to find all of his family, a clan so big they had a whole district for themselves, killed, and by the hands his own kin. The thought is deeply unsettling.

"Okay!" Kakashi interrupts the gloomy atmosphere, "So far for the introductions. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi."

Naruto, predictably, is hyped for whatever is to come, but the words "survival training" alone make Haru feel queasy. They're fresh out of the Academy after all, the most _real_ thing they ever did was an obstacle course in the woods right outside the gate. What does the jounin want to do, beat them so badly that they'll have to stay in the hospital for weeks and he'll be rid of them?

His gut feeling is proven correct when their teacher starts to cackle and tells them that only nine out of the 30 Academy graduates will actually become genin and the rest be send back to the Academy – which immediately makes Haru suspicious.

Naruto almost screams in panic then, and even Sasuke tenses beside him while Hatake is standing there laughing at their ashen faces. He wonders how they can't see that this makes no sense.

"What? No way!" Naruto is shouting now, making a scene as usual.

He's arguing with back and forth with their sensei, while both Haru and Sasuke look on in silence.

There is no point in making them graduate just to kick more than two-thirds of them back to the Academy, Haru thinks when he automatically takes the sheet Hatake thrusts into his hand.

Out of the corner of his eye he watches Sasuke crumble his angrily in his fist while Naruto is staring at the piece of paper like it's a complicated math exercise and mumbles some colorful insults about the kanji under his breath.

Haru turns his gaze away from them to look at their sensei, but before he can even open his mouth to ask what this is about the bastard has said "bye", waved at him and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke and Naruto get up an instant later, the former with a scowl on his face and the later still clutching his piece of paper and cursing their sensei. His foul language is kinda impressive.

"Wait!" he calls before they can get away.

Naruto skips to a halt in mid-step rather comically, almost planting himself face-first onto the rooftop. Sasuke meanwhile turns on his heel with practiced ease and glares at him, "What?"

Haru waves the sheet around.

"Shinobi rule 11: A shinobi must see underneath the underneath."

"Huh?" Naruto asks, looking confused, "There's no hidden message on this."

He stares at him. Naruto the _dead last_ of the Academy just checked an assignment sheet for hidden messages, something that Haru – and Sasuke, by the look on his face – would have never thought of. Naruto, who never paid attention in class, who's an orphan but got treated like a clan brat, actually thinks more like a ninja than he ever gave him credit for.

Suddenly he feels bad for assuming that the only thing Naruto would do would be to drag down the team.

"I… didn't really think of that. Good job," he admits and watches the blond perk up at the praise.

"Keh," Naruto mutters, grinning from ear to ear, "I'll be the most awesome shinobi ever!"

Sasuke kicks the feet out from Naruto before either of them can react, and the boy tumbles to the floor.

"Not likely, _dead last_ ," he deadpans and then makes a motion with his hand in Haru's direction to have him go on – for once, Sasuke looks _interested_ in what is happening.

"Hey, asshole!" Naruto shouts back. He gets to his feet and makes as if to hit his teammate back, but then thinks better of it. Instead he looks at Haru expectantly.

"Hatake-sensei hates us," he says and waits for the other two to nod before he continues, "And what he said makes no sense. There is only one academy class per year. If more than two-thirds of all teams fail there would only be a handful genin teams every year."

Sasuke snorts. He got it. Naruto didn't. He looks from one of them to the other, confused.

"So what?" he asks, "The bastard wants to fail us."

"Yes," Sasuke agrees, and for once doesn't insult their teammate, "But he's also lying to us. A two-third drop-out rate isn't enough to keep the numbers in the force stable, especially if you consider that only about one in eight genin actually make jounin."

Naruto thinks about that for a few seconds, like he needs time to process the words – Haru is actually happy that he thinks first instead of instantly shouting.

"So… the son of a Kiri backwater whore wants us to believe that we'll fail?" he finally exclaims, sounding a little uncertain.

Haru really, really wants to know who taught him those curse words and how to use them that casually. His mother would have grounded him for a week if she'd ever heard him say stuff like that… but Naruto doesn't have a mother. He shouldn't forget that.

"He wants to get rid of us," he says, "How about some payback?"

Sasuke smirks viciously. Naruto grins and rips the sheet he's still holding into tiny shreds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The one flaw of Team 7 was that their teamwork was abysmal. With Haru instead of Sakura you have a team member that actively wants to work together with his teammates, as that's what he was taught to do. Ninja work in teams, and Team 7 is Haru's team. That's why he dislikes Kakashi so much, because he think Kakashi doesn't care (which is mostly true in the beginning). Kakashi as the "enemy" also gives the three a common goal, a reason to work together, if you will. 
> 
> I wanted to make Haru clever, perspective, without crossing the line into genius. As a ninja, everything considered, Sasuke is still the best of the team, but Haru internalized his training and thinks fast. Those are his strengths, what he will build on in the future.


	3. Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There actually is a life outside of being a ninja.

It's past 5 pm by the time Haru heads home.

They spent almost two hours on coming up with a plan for tomorrow and in the end it was actually fun, especially because _Naruto_ proved to be an expert in setting traps, evading enemies and anticipating their movement. Haru underestimated him – heck, _Sasuke_ underestimated him, and he is the person that had the most interaction with Naruto of all the children at the Academy.

After their sensei left they took to the Third Training Ground to do some reconning. There Naruto proceeded to give them a crash course in how to make the terrain one giant trap. It was as marvelous as it was terrifying, and Haru will never make the mistake again of thinking that "pranking" is not a serious hobby.

He couldn't really add much to the tactical discussion, but Sasuke actually warmed up to it and was pointing Naruto to spots for setting up traps with ninja wire and shuriken.

Haru can't read Sasuke well, and the boy won't interact with him much, but somehow Naruto always manages to bring him out of his shell. Mostly that happens in the way of the two of them trying to beat each other up however, and he will just stand there, not knowing if he should stop them or not.

Still, after having spent the afternoon with them Haru starts to get the feeling of being in this together, of being _teammates_ – and this time he isn't the odd one out, he's part of Team 7. It feels good.

Finally Haru is able to prove that he'll be a fine shinobi. He won't lag behind the other two, but show them and every clan brat and teacher at the Academy who ignored him that you don't need ninja in your family to be a good shinobi.

Despite Hatake wanting to fail them, today is the best day Haru had since Tojo left the Academy.

Humming happily he walks through the streets of Konoha.

His father will be at the construction site for two more hours at least, and his mother has on-call duty at work from 6 pm to midnight today, so even if he hurries home now he'll miss her.

Instead of going home to an empty house he decides to visit Tojo.

Since his mother died Mr. Kayano takes more breaks from work and leaves the bakery earlier to spend time with his children. He'll have left the shop by now, meaning that Haru will be at their house in time to help prepare dinner.

He stops at the store on the corner of their street to buy some _hanami dango_ which he knows all three family members love, and rings the doorbell of the Kayano household some twenty minutes after he has left the Academy.

"Haru-kun," Kayano Takeru greets him when he opens the door, a smile on his face, "Good to see you, boy… and you finally made a ninja, I see. I knew you'd do it!"

The manly slap on the shoulder Takeru gives him when he sees the forehead protector on his head sends Haru staggering a step forward – Kayano senior is a strong man with incredibly muscular arms from a lifetime of kneading bread.

"I don't know if I made it yet," he admits when he follows the man into the living room of the house, "But I didn't make it that far to let one more test stop me."

Takeru laughs at that. "That's the spirit!"

"Hakkun!" a high voice screams from the kitchen an instant later, and he barely manages to put the bag with the dango on the table before two-year-old Kiku throws herself into his arms. She has her light brown hair in pigtails and bread crumbs on her clothes.

"Kiku-chan," he greets her fondly, lifting the little girl up to hug her, "How are you doing, princess?"

"Missed you," she tells him affectionately, throwing her small arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

"I missed you, too," he answers honestly.

And he has. A lot. Toujirou is his best friend, but over the years Haru has come to like his family just as much as him. Kiku is so cheerful that you can't be sad in her presence for long, especially if she decides to cheer you by sharing her stuffed animals with you or to "cuddle you better".

Takeru meanwhile has sat down at the table and his smiling at his daughter's antics. He and Tojo love her more than anything else in the world, and Haru shares the sentiment wholeheartedly. He could sit and play with Kiku all day long without getting bored.

"Nii-chan," she shouts right beside his ear, "Hakkun is here."

The sheer volume of her voice makes his ears ring, but still he can't help himself but laugh while he walks into the kitchen with the little girl in his arms to greet his best friend.

Toujirou looks up from where he has just begun to cut vegetables for dinner when they enter and smiles fondly when he sees the two of them making faces at each other – Haru sticks his tongue out at him for good measure.

"You know, one day she'll be too heavy for this and then she'll hate us because we won't pick her up anymore," Tojo jokes and motions for Haru to take the free second chair at the small kitchen table.

He navigates the room carefully, using all the training he got at the Academy to move around the furniture and sit down on the chair with a squirming two-year-old in his arms.

"Nah, she'll always love us. Right, Kiku-chan?" Haru asks her.

"Always!" the girl promises, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

He strokes her head in reply and she giggles happily.

"You gonna help with dinner?" Tojo wants to know, but has pushed the cutting board and the knife over before Haru can answer.

He moves Kiku a little so he can move his arms feely and starts chopping the fresh mushrooms. "Yeah, like I was gonna let you do all the work on your own."

They banter back and forth good-naturedly while Tojo starts the broth for the _tonjiru_ and Haru cuts and slices his way through various vegetables – they've known each other since they were five and by now any conversation between flows naturally from one topic to another.

After Hatake's strange behavior, getting to know Sasuke and Naruto and all the _underneath the underneath_ it's soothing to chat like that, to talk about _normal_ stuff. Just him and Tojo and Kiku having fun with each other.

"How was graduation? Did you get on a good team?" Tojo finally asks when the soup is simmering on the stove and Takeru has taken his daughter to get cleaned up before dinner.

"My sensei is creepy as they come and I think he wants to fail us," he answers and sighs in frustration, "And I'm in the team with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, of all people. I've no idea how this happened."

"Didn't you say that Naruto was going to fail?" Tojo asks, frowning.

"Yeah, I thought he did," Haru agrees, "Strange. He must have barely made the cut... Iruka-sensei wouldn't have let him cheat in the exam, and nobody else would give the dead last a pity pass."

"Hm," Tojo mumbles, "Maybe he put in some last minute work."

Haru shrugs. "Who knows? He's not that bad though, his traps are great. Sasuke 's better, but I don't know if he cares that much about us, as a team. Hatake-sensei certainly doesn't… I think he's a little nuts to be honest."

"Well," Tojo says and smirks, "You were the one who told me that every good ninja is a little loose in the head. Give it a few years and you'll be pulling crazy shit, too."

They share a laugh then, and move on to dinner when the other two Kayanos come down from the bathroom – it's nice, a good home-made meal with the people he loves. Things like this remind Haru why he wanted to be a ninja in the first place: to protect his village, the people he cares about.

He wants to prove that he can do it, that a boy with civilian parents, without a bloodline or special family technique, can defend his home just as well as any other shinobi.

Later, after they've played a game of cards with Kiku and her father put her to bed, he watches a shitty ninja soap with Tojo and his dad, who without fail point out the silliest parts to Haru as _examples_ on how to become a good ninja.

When the show is over he hugs both of them goodbye, takes the bag of _meronpan_ from the bakery Takeru put aside because he knows that Mebuki loves them, and walks home.

It's almost dark outside, but the light at home are on and when he enters the house his father is sitting in front of the TV and watching the live sumo.

"I'm home!" he calls out on his way to the kitchen, grabs himself a plate, fills it with his mother's delicious curry – being a shinobi has its peaks, and not to worry about second servings is one of them – and walks into the living room to sit down at the _kotatsu_ beside his dad.

He's lucky: the match has just started.

"Tanaka is so gonna win this," Sakurabata Kizashi mumbles between bites of his own curry.

"Murasaki 's not bad, though," Haru counters as he checks the statistics, "Tojo's dad gave me _meronpan_ for mom. Fresh from the last batch of the day."

His father rolls his eyes and picks up the remote to turn down the volume of Murasaki's entrance.

"And that's why she loves him more than me half the time," Kizashi grumbles, but gives his son a conspiratorial wink a moment later, "Yeah, I went over to fix the counter in the bakery yesterday. Takeru promised me that we'll watch some matches Friday evening."

Haru really likes it that his and Tojo's dad get along so well. After Satomi died Takeru didn't want to leave the house for months, not even when Kiku begged… until Kizashi dragged him out to watch sumo at the pub, swearing and shouting, and scolding him for burying himself in work and grief.

They're both part of his family, and he was as happy watching TV at the Kayano's house as he is sitting there with his dad talking about sumo, Kizashi's nasty client of the week, and Haru's genin team.

Afterwards they clean the dishes together and make sure that there are no rice grains on the _kotatsu_ because his mom will have their heads if she finds any, before they both go off to bed – it's been a long day and they both have to get up early tomorrow.

In the beginning Haru thought that him becoming a ninja would make things awkward between him and his family, but it actually improved his relationship with his dad a lot, because now they have more to talk about.

Before he entered the Academy he didn't care for working outside, or carving wood, or sumo. When you have all the time in the world you don't need hobbies to calm you down at the end of a long day.

Becoming a ninja made Haru realize what actual _work_ is and how tiring it can be. For the last couple of years he spent most of his days studying, or training, or repeating his lessons to be ready for surprise tests. His free time was suddenly very limited, and that made him treasure it more.

He's a young man learning a job now. He got efficient at managing his time.

He goes out and trains, he comes home just after sunset to spend time with his parents, he cramps his study sessions so he can visit Tojo, and he's made time to be able to help his dad out at the workshop for a while now.

Being a ninja gives Haru _purpose_. He loves that.

What he hates however, is his alarm clock ringing way too early in the morning. He hits the offending thing on the head, but knows that it will just start wailing again in three minutes.

It's 5 am however, and so he rubs his blurry eyes and crawls out of bed and into the shower. That at least makes him awake enough to set up a pot of tea in the kitchen – it's hot and strong, the best thing to get you through an early morning.

They left some of the more complex traps and the ones they needed additional material for for today, which means that he'll have to be at the training ground before their sensei arrives.

Still he decides to err on the side of caution and skip breakfast, just in case Hatake has something really nasty up his sleeve. Instead the checks first the clock and then the fridge, figuring that he has enough time left to prepare some _bento_ for after their _survival training_.

Both his parents are still sleeping when he leaves, but Haru doesn't want to wake them up. He writes a short note with a big smiley wishing them a nice day and then hurries toward Training Ground Three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what makes Haru Haru. Sakura's life at 12 is Sasuke and being a kunoichi (because of Sasuke). Haru has friends, family, he has hobbies and he has purpose. I love writing him because he's so sure of who he is.
> 
> And, you might have guessed it, prepare for the butterfly effect. The farther this goes the more it will deviate from canon.


	4. Secret Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working on that teamwork.

Team 7 was supposed to meet at the Third Training Ground at 7:15 in the morning.

Haru arrives an hour early, ready to make Hatake's life hell.

He left his red jacket at home to blend in with the underbrush of the forest better, put some extra kunai into the pouch on his thigh and his rucksack is packed with flour, balloons, _mizuame_ and the _bento_ boxes he prepared earlier.

The place is empty when he arrives, but he's not really surprised that he's the first one there. Naruto is always late and Sasuke… well, usually he was already there when Haru entered the classroom in the Academy. It isn't like the Uchiha to be late, now that he thinks of it.

Again he realizes that he knows next to nothing about his teammates. Sasuke was just always there, always prepared, always the best at tests, at taijutsu and ninjutsu and throwing shuriken – he was born to be a ninja, no matter how he dislikes to admit it. The thought stings.

Now that they're on the same team however, he can't keep thinking of them like that however. Sasuke isn't a showoff clan brat, Naruto isn't the dead last class clown, they are his _partners_. If somebody tries to kill Haru those two will protect him, they'll have his back in fights and keep watch when he sleeps. Them and _Hatake-sensei_ , they're supposed to be one unit.

It's sad that he trusts the other two boys more than their teacher, but at the moment _passing this last test_ matters a lot more than that.

The sound of voices pulls him from his musings.

It's Sasuke, who walks into the training ground with his hands in his pockets and an animatedly talking Naruto following in his wake. The Uchiha looks unhappy, but Haru can't tell if it's because of Naruto or if he's just being his usual antisocial self.

"Hey, guys," he calls and waves in their direction, prompting Naruto to wave back enthusiastically.

"Haru!" the blonde yells, and runs towards him – Sasuke rolls his eyes behind their teammates back and then gives Haru a short nod in greeting. That's more acknowledgement than people usually get from him.

"You got everything?" Naruto asks and he nods and starts unpacking his backpack.

"Yeah, I have everything you wanted," he says.

"Nice! We'll show the bastard who is boss," Naruto exclaims, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hn," Sasuke grumbles, crossing his arms in front of his chest as they both turn to look at him.

"What's up, idiot?"

Sasuke takes a shuriken from his pouch and before Haru has realized what is happening he's thrown it at Naruto, but the blond throws himself on the ground just in time for it to fly over his head harmlessly.

"Not fun, idiot," Naruto curses, "No attacking teammates!"

The other genin makes a move as if he wants to kick him, and Haru puts himself between them to avoid a fight.

"And no unnecessarily provoking teammates either, Naruto!" he says sternly.

Naruto grumbles as he gets up but doesn't insult Sasuke again at least.

"I checked," Sasuke suddenly says, face grim, "Yesterday after we left. Hatake… he failed his other genin teams. All six of them."

Haru swallows hard while Naruto's mouth has fallen open comically wide.

There's a difference between _assuming_ that their sensei wants to fail them and the knowledge that he's not only fully capable of it but actually has done so before.

"All…" Haru clears his throat, "All _six_? That's… hell."

Sasuke nods and slabs Naruto over the head when he sees that his mouth is still hanging open. The blonde yelps and obviously wants to hit back, but Sasuke is faster – seriously that boy is faster than Iruka-sensei when he wants to be, and it's freakin' scary – and grabs Naruto's backpack from the ground.

"Get to work, moron, we don't have all day," he tells the other boy haughtily, not bothering to hide his grin when Naruto becomes agitated and starts waving his arms around.

"Yes, we gotta hurry if we wanna finish before Hatake shows up. We can't let him get suspicious," Haru hurries to add before they can start fighting for real.

"Fine," Naruto grumbles, picks up the things left on the grass and points at the forest, "Come on, we need to get in deeper."

"Why don't we just trap the ground?" Haru asks him.

He has no idea about traps, and was confused yesterday already by the fact that Naruto never even mentioned setting something up in the open.

"It's, ah," Naruto starts and scratches his head, "Like he'll see right away, right?"

Haru frowns, but Sasuke cuts in before he can ask a follow-up questions.

"The earth here is hard, it's no use trying to dig there," he explains, "And if we dig under the grass he'll see because it will look different after."

A surprised "oh" is all that escapes Haru's mouth – he has no experience whatsoever with nature or the world outside of Konoha's walls. It never occurred to him that they'll have to cover their tracks.

"So the forest it is, then," he agrees and lets the other two boys lead him inside the dense forest that makes him feel a little queasy to be honest. The trees are huge, ancient, and without his teammates he might actually get lost if he wanders in too deep.

"It's easy," Naruto assures him with a bright smile, "There's so much stuff here that you can hide everything behind a tree or something."

Well, that's what they do for the next hour or so.

Sasuke and Naruto set the easier traps up yesterday already, and so now they have to arrange the things that take more work or material to connect to branches, tree trunks, bushes and the occasional rock.

Naruto makes him put the _mizuame_ and flour into one half of the balloons each, and by the time he is done with all of them Haru has understood why the blonde wanted him to buy the green and blue balloons: unless you know where they are they don't catch the eye at all inside the forest.

Haru watches his teammates as they link the balloons to various bushes and trees with ninja wire that remains hidden by the terrain. They put some of them on very high branches even, so that the only thing you have to do to pop them is hit them with a shuriken or kunai – it's fascinating to watch how the forest becomes a minefield before his very eyes.

Next come the balloons Naruto brought. They are small and already filled, but Naruto promises that they'll be the most fun with a big grin on his face.

Team Seven is done rigging the Third Training Ground with five minutes to spare until their sensei is set to arrives.

Excited and more than a little bit nervous they sit down by the three wooden poles that stand in the middle of the open field on hard-packed dirt.

"Go check your weapons," Sasuke orders suddenly, "We need to take stock of what we have."

Haru's first instinct is to protest and ask who made Sasuke boss, but he keeps the words to himself when he sees the look on Naruto's face – if he sees that Haru is offended by the other boy's instruction he'll be as well. Now is really not the time to start an argument.

"I have," he begins and opens the pouch on his left leg, "Seven shuriken, plus three kunai in the other pouch."

Naruto meanwhile has emptied his rucksack onto the ground, and Haru's eyes are drawn to the mass of weapons he piled up. It's an arsenal of kunai and shuriken, the latter coming in various forms and sizes.

"Wow Naruto, where did you get all of these?" he asks, wondering how an orphan like Naruto has come at that huge a collection. Ninja tools are pricy, which is why he has only precious few of them.

"Gramps bought them for me," Naruto answers a lot more calm than is usual for him, crossing his arms behind his head and smiling happily, "He always gets me some for my birthday."

Naruto never mentioned having a grandfather before. Haru wonders if they are really related or if it's just a nice old man helping Naruto out because he feels pity for the orphan boy.

"That is good-quality steel," Sasuke adds almost sullenly when he picks up one of the dozen shuriken the blond has strewn over the ground.

"Grampa's the best, of course he gave me the good stuff! He knows that I'm an awesome ninja!" Naruto shouts.

At least he isn't overly insulted by what Sasuke said _this time_ , Haru thinks while he absentmindedly plays with one of his own shuriken – he likes them a lot, but unfortunately he isn't that good at throwing them. He always hits the target, but he's never managed a bullseye.

"Where did you buy these?" Sasuke asks and it's only when Naruto remains silent and looks at him expectantly that the pink-haired boy realizes that the question was directed at him.

The Uchiha has one of his shuriken in his hands and is turning it around on all sites. He doesn't look happy with what he sees.

"At the weapons shop in the central district, where else?" he replies flippantly.

Black eyes give him a hard stare.

"They're badly made," Sasuke answers and throws the shuriken at the trunk of the nearest tree with a flip of his fingers Haru is immediately envious of.

The weapon hits the bark of the tree at an odd angle and instead of sinking into it, it falls down into the bushes below. Haru's eyes go wide. Sasuke always hits bullseyes.

"See?" the Uchiha asks, turning back to him, "Its trajectory is bad. If the steel was of a better quality and worked more evenly it would have never ricocheted like that. That' subpar goods, some shops sell them to civilians because they don't recognize the difference."

For a moment both Naruto and Haru stare dumbly at Sasuke.

"But," he finally defends himself, "The owner said they're ninja grade weapons. I've used them since I started at the Academy!"

"Well, then the man was scamming you," Sasuke replies easily.

"Just because you come from a clan doesn't mean-" Haru stops in the middle of his angry rant when Sasuke takes one of his own shuriken and holds it out to him.

"Throw that one."

He wants to decline, really – who does he think he is, telling Haru that his weapons are shit, stupid clan brat – but there is that tiny sliver of doubt in his mind when he thinks about the way Sasuke didn't hit the tree properly with his shuriken.

"Fine," he mumbles and takes the offered shuriken.

It doesn't _feel_ any different than what he is used to… maybe a little smoother on the surface, but it can't be that big of a difference, right?

Haru fixes his attention at the tree, takes aim, and throws the shuriken exactly like he has done it a thousand times during practice.

It hits the tree dead center, half of the star sinking into the bark easily.

"That was an awesome throw, Haru!" Naruto cheers, bumping his shoulder into Haru's proudly.

He's speechless.

"Told you," Sasuke says, and for once his smirk is more amused than derogatory.

"I…" he stutters, "I'm… I always thought they were good weapons. Thank you, Sasuke."

His teammate looks uncomfortable when he bows slightly in thanks. It looks as if he isn't used to people showing him their gratitude – as he thinks back he can't recall a single instance when a teacher ever thanked Sasuke for demonstrating something the class. It was just expected of him. Huh.

"Hn," the other boy grunts, "You're on my team, you can't run around with tools like these. Even the moron has decent equipment."

At that Naruto grabs one of his kunai and stabs at Sasuke, angrily yelling "Idiot!", but as usual Sasuke is fast enough to avoid it. He gets one of his own kunai and they make a game of trying to stab each other without getting up. Haru watches them intently while he puts his own tools back into his pouch, ready to break them apart should they really try to hurt each other.

That's when Hatake Kakashi walks onto Training Ground Three, a full half an hour late.

Haru notices him first and hits Naruto on the shoulder to get the other boys' attention.

Their teacher has one of his hands in his pocket, the other is holding a small orange booklet. He's reading intently and only looks up when he feels the three of them staring at him.

A single grey eye sweeps over the training ground, then he closes his book and puts it into the front pocket of his vest.

"Congratulations, you pass."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haru is a boy from the city, raised by civilians. In some ways those are his advantages, but in other ways they are his limitations. He doesn't need to pass a bell test because teamwork is a lesson he's already learnt. It's the side of the coin where he has the edge over Sakura, but there will also be situations where it's the other way around.
> 
>  _Mizuame_ (literally "water candy") is liquid sweetener and used in cooking.


	5. Kakashi's Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunchbreak and the obligatory teamwork talk.

They stare at their sensei. All three of them. Then Naruto and Haru erupt at the same time.

"What do you mean, we passed? Are you fu-" the pink haired boy shouts angrily, but is interrupted by his teammate's yelling.

"We passed! We're the most awesome team ever! Team Seven rocks!"

Naruto has raised his arm into the air in celebration, punching a fist towards the sky while he is doing a little victory dance. His other hand has grabbed Sasuke's shoulder in excitement, but for once the Uchiha doesn't seem to mind.

Sasuke is still tense however, as if he expects Hatake-sensei to takes his words back any moment – Haru thoroughly agrees with that sentiment. Why did they suddenly pass? What changed from yesterday when Hatake wanted to fail them?

"Tell me, Haru," the jounin says calmly, completely ignoring the still screaming Naruto, "Why did you pass?"

_"Is that a trick question?"_ is the first thing that comes to his mind when his sensei fixes his single eye on Haru. This makes no sense. Why would Hatake change his mind on accepting them as his team all of a sudden?

They were even more hostile towards the man today than they were yesterday at the meeting on the roof. None of them even bothered to greeted him when he arrived at the training ground. Heck, Hatake is the _enemy_. That's how they've been treating him since they realized that he wanted to fail them as genin.

"We prepa- no," he begins and then disagrees with himself.

Yes, they spent a lot of time preparing the Third Training Ground for the encounter with their sensei, but that's not really what the man has been after. If he'd wanted preparation he'd have been way more neutral yesterday and waited to see what they'd do instead of actively trying to discourage them.

Hatake had seemed disinclined to the team from the beginning, like there was something _missing_. He'd wanted to see something specific from them but it hadn't been there, or not enough of it, and that's what he'd tested them on.

Following orders? No, if anything Hatake had seemed impressed when the three of them had opposed his questionable methods openly. A good shinobi followed orders, but never mindlessly. A shinobi who doesn't use their brains is worthless in the higher ranks.

Haru glares at the jounin.

So what was it then that had set them apart? One look around the training ground was all it had taken for Hatake to decide. Had he guessed about the traps? None of them were visible from the field, but then again Haru had just passed the Academy, how would he know what jounin were trained to look out for?

They'd acted harmlessly enough, just sitting there and playing childish games. Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't even have noticed the man immediately if Haru hadn't pointed his arrival out to them. 

He'd been the lookout, kinda, alerting them to the oncoming threat.

_Like a team is supposed to work… oh._

"Teamwork, Hatake-sensei," he finally answers, "We acted like a true team."

Sasuke and Naruto remain quiet beside him, both now tense with anticipation. All three of them are watching their sensei again.

"Wrong," the man replies after a moment of silence, shaking his head.

Haru bites his lip and lets his head fall forward to hide behind his mop of pink hair. He'd really thought that was it, that they stuck together. What else had they done to-

Hatake sighs. "It's _Kakashi_ -sensei."

He blinks and slowly lifts his head to look at his sensei. The man is outright grinning at him – it's the first time Haru can see real emotion on his face. The effect is stunning, as it makes the jounin look years younger.

So… he was right after all?

"Ah, I…" he stammers, unsure, but then composes himself, "We passed because we acted like a team, Kakashi-sensei."

His words are half a question, but if anything his teacher seems even more pleased then before.

"Atta boy."

Suddenly the man is standing beside him. A big, warm hand comes to lie on Haru's head and ruffles his hair almost affectionately. He squeaks in surprise.

Sasuke inhales sharply beside him while Haru's thought progress arrives at the question how _Kakashi-sensei_ could move that fast. He was _over there_ , and now he is _here_ , but no time passed between the one and the other.

"Amazing! Sensei, how did you do that?", Naruto finally yells when he has found his voice, "Can you teach us how to do that? Will you?"

Hatake's visible eye crinkles at the corner and abruptly his creepy psycho smile is back. All three of them shudder involuntarily at the sight of it, coming to the understanding that the expression doesn't bode well for them.

"Mah mah," he says and takes his hand out of Haru's hair, "Not yet, my little minions."

He vanishes again and reappears a moment later with two bento boxes in hand, plopping down gracefully on the grass in front of them.

Oh, how Haru wants to be able to do that! Moving instantly between one place and another would be amazing. He could move between his and Tojo's house without having to set a foot on the street! No looking presentable anymore, simply moving from home to there in his pajamas!

"Wow," Naruto mumbles again. His eyes are glazed over, and Haru knows that he isn't the only one thinking about the incredible feats they'd be able to pull off with this jutsu.

Sasuke on the other hand ... he isn't impressed at all. The boy just sits there with a frown on his face, giving them the evil eye for being impressed that easily – that's the perks of coming from a clan, Haru thinks.

His attention drifts back to their sensei, who has pulled a pair of chopsticks from out of nowhere and is now opening one of bento boxes.

It's one of those store-bought, expensive ones that have a little of everything in them and look absolutely perfect: there is tempura, _tsukemono_ , fresh salmon, _umeboshi_ and even two _gyouza_. The smell alone is delicious.

Naruto's stomach suddenly grumbles. Loudly.

The boy blushes a deep red color, but nobody comments on it. His teammates are hungry too, eyes still fixed on the food Kakahsi is happily eating.

"Is something the matter?" he asks with a sly grin.

"I'm hungry, sensei," Naruto finally whines, "Share with us!"

"Hm," the jounin mumbles, putting his left hand to his chin as if he has to consider that first.

"I..." Haru begins and stammers when his teacher and teammates all at once turn to stare at him. He gulps and forces himself to continue, "I... made bento for us."

"Really?" Naruto shouts, eyes comically wide.

Sasuke frowns as if he doesn't really believe him, and their teacher lifts his brow, equally surprised.

"Yeah," Haru answers while he digs in his backpack for the three boxes he prepared this morning – they seem awfully simple compared to the box their sensei has in his lap.

He hands one box to each of his teammates. Naruto immediately rips his open while Sasuke stares at it like it might kill him if he isn't careful.

"This… it's…" Naruto stutters, looking at the rice, roasted chicken, sliced vegetables and the single piece of wrapped chocolate like he has never seen food before, "Can I eat all of this? Like, it's all for me?"

"Ah, sure?" Haru replies, confused by the sudden meekness in the blonde's demeanor.

Confused, he looks at his sensei for clarification, but Kakashi's face is completely emotionless, like he doesn't want to reveal what's going on in his head.

"You made this?" Sasuke's sudden question pulls his attention to the quiet one of teammates. He too has opened his box and surveys it's content.

Haru scratches the back of head, a little embarrassed by the other's reaction to his food.

"Yeah… I know it's not really fancy, but I had time this morning and I thought it'd be a good idea to prepare some food for us because yesterday Kakashi-sensei said that-"

"Thank you," Sasuke interrupts his rambling.

The Uchiha looks dead serious when he bows his head in gratitude before he picks up the cheap wooden chopsticks, breaks them apart and starts to eat.

"Thank you, Haru!" Naruto abruptly echoes beside him, shouting a lot louder than is necessary with them sitting side by side already.

He stares at them as they eat total in silence. He'd thought that Sasuke might not like the food because it's real simple and he's certainly used to a higher quality in meals coming from a ninja clan, and that Naruto would probably dislike it because it's not even remotely related to ramen. Instead they both look like they are _enjoying_ their meal, wolfing down huge bites like they've never eaten a home-made bento. _Strange_.

From the corner of his eyes he shots their teacher another glance. Kakashi's dark eye is fixed on his eating teammates. His face is too impassive for it to be his natural reaction.

"So, sensei," he says, "Will you teach us that teleporting jutsu?"

Naruto's and Sasuke's heads peak up at that. Kakashi rolls his visible eye.

"Wrong again, Haru," he singsongs, "Try again tomorrow."

Haru frowns. What is wrong with his question? It is definitely a jutsu, even if Kakashi-sensei didn't use any hand signs with it. So... it's not a teleporting justu, then? Movement maybe, or an illusion?

"It's called Body Flicker," Sasuke says, putting down his empty box, "The speed of your movement is enhanced by chakra to the point where it appears that you are teleporting. Chuunin and higher ranking ninja use it to get from one point to another."

"You know the technique?" he asks, surprised by his teammate's additional knowledge – they didn't cover that in the Academy – though he knows that he shouldn't be, with Sasuke coming from the strongest clan in Konoha and all.

Sasuke gives him a disbelieving look down his nose. It makes Haru feel a little bit stupid.

"Of course," he answers, "It's a basic ninja technique. Like _Kawarimi_ and _Bushin_."

"Oh," is all he manages to reply. The only comforting thought is that Naruto seems to be as clueless as he is, following their conversation with rapt attention. 

"Now, my faithful little soldier," Kakashi interrupts his musings, gathering their attention.

His bento box is lying on the ground, empty, and his mask is back in place, covering his mouth and half of his nose. Without it he looked a lot more approachable now that Haru has seen him both with it on and off.

"You did well today," he tells them, creepy smirk back in place, "You're the first to pass this test. Everyone else didn't work together. They just did whatever I told them to and fought each other instead of sticking together. Morons."

None of them says anything. They are at least aware enough to know that if Kakashi had told them to they would have fought each other too for the chance to become genin.

Haru gulps. He realizes how close they actually were to failing. If he hadn't called them back after the introduction on the rooftop, then what? The thought is unsettling.

"A ninja must see underneath the underneath," Kakashi continues, "Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash… but those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash. Never forget that."

The tone of his voice sends a shiver down Haru's spine. Naruto shudders visibly beside him. Sasuke looks grim and unhappy.

"Yes, sensei," he finally croaks out. His throat is dry as dust. Haru gulps.

"Understood," Sasuke mumbles to his left and Naruto hastily nods his agreement along with it.

"Good."

Kakashi gets up and dusts off his dark pants.

"Ninja duties are done by the team," he lectures, "You will be risking your lives in these duties. It is my job to make sure that none of you die just yet."

That's… not reassuring. Well, it's reassuring to the point where Kakashi-sensei wants to keep them alive. The _just yet_ really isn't. Haru wants to live long enough to became a skilled shinobi and protect Konoha.

"We won't die!" Naruto exclaims, "Team Seven will be best team ever!"

"Keh," Sasuke grumbles in reply to the blonde's shout, but there is a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth and determination is written all over his face.

Breathing deeply, Haru tries to let their confidence rub off on him. He squares his shoulders and sits straight. They can do it.

Their teacher doesn't react to their sudden display of backbone.

"From today on you will be here at 7 sharp," he explains, "We will repeat the exercise I'll show you now every morning until you can complete it. In the afternoon we'll do D rank missions."

There is a glee to Hatake when he mentions the D ranks that Haru instantly distrusts, but before he has any time to think further on it their sensei has pulled two tiny bells from the pouch at his belt.

They jingle softly in the breeze.

"Now, let's start that survival training."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haru is normal. He has no trust issues and tons of mental garbage like the other three. He's just a nice, clever boy who can't comprehend how special that makes him compared to the rest of Team Seven. Maybe he can't change his teammates, can't make them less broken, but he will try and that alone will make a big difference.
> 
> And - by this point a lot of people will have noticed, I presume - yes, Kakashi behaves differently. Here he doesn't have to resign himself to work with three kids who love/hate each other and are abysmal at being a team. Kakashi has been mostly alone since the deaths of Rin and Obito, didn't want to form any more bonds from fear that his precious people might die again. What Haru, Sasuke and Naruto do is give him hope. No matter how small, that will change him.
> 
> _Tsukemono_ are pickled vegetables, _umeboshi_ are pickled plums and _gyouza_ is a Japanese variant of Chinese dumplings with lots of garlic.


	6. Not Sasuke-kun!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You didn't really think we'd skip the bell test, did you?

This should have been easy, Haru thinks while diving out of the way of a volley of shuriken.

There are three of them, and Kakashi is a single man reading his silly little book. They should be able to steal one simple bell from him in a forest littered with traps – it surely didn't sound that hard when their sensei explained the exercise.

"Duck!" he screams at the closest Naruto when Kakashi appears behind him and flicks a kunai at his back.

Until an hour ago he'd thought it impossible to make more than a few clones of oneself, but Naruto is popping them out like it's nobody's business. They aren't normal clones either, which was even more surprising.

The clones are still better than being almost fried to death by Sasuke' giant fireball however. Without the warning shouts from all the Narutos he would have taken that one right in the face when Kakashi shunshined away in the last second. Not cool at all.

Maybe they should have spent some quality time talking about the jutsu they know before they sat down and set all those traps.

Haru had innocently assumed that his teammates only knew the same basic ninjutsu as him. Big mistake. It earned him a burned shirt, some badly bruised ribs and various cuts all over his body.

He watches as Kakashi's kunai hits the Naruto clone where his liver should be. Like all the others it vanishes with a pop and a big cloud of smoke, leaving Haru to face their teacher alone.

Sasuke ended up buried up to his neck in the dirt earlier and Naruto offered to dig him out while Haru and the majority of the clone army went to distract their teacher. The plan worked, but he'd hoped that the others would be back in time to save him from going up against their teacher on his own.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei," he says awkwardly and waves at his teacher.

"I think you lost your teammates, Haru," Kakashi replies, creepy grin back on his face.

Damn, this won't go- with a squeak he throws himself to the side. It's just in time to avoid the kunai Kakashi is thrusting at him.

With a well-practiced roll he is back on his feet and running back towards the forest, towards where Sasuke and Naruto are. He _really_ doesn't want to be buried in the middle of the training ground.

The sound of displaced air is all the warning he has that another round of shuriken is coming for him. There is no time to turn around and look, so he just jumps to the left on instinct.

Most of the weapons fly past him harmlessly, but two would have hit his arm if Sasuke hadn't pulled him down in the last second.

Before Haru can even utter a “thank you” however, the other starts to drag him away from the sounds that are their advancing teacher. They almost fall over each other in their attempt to get away from Hatake, but manage to land on their feet running.

Only a few of the traps in the forest are left for them to cover their retreat. Contrary to that first display back in the classroom however, their sensei actually _is_ able to avoid traps – which leads Haru to the question why he didn’t dodge that first, poor attempt in the first place, but he’s too busy dodging flying weapons to care much at this point.

“Sasuke, watch ou-“ Haru screams when he sees metal reflecting the sunlight that filters through the trees ahead of them, but he is too late.

The boy had instinctively ducked low to avoid being seen and moved right into the kunai ricocheting off the massive tree beside him.

Haru stares at his teammate in shock, green eyes wide when he looks at the weapon that has sunk almost to the hilt into the dark-haired boy’s left side. It struck him just below the ribcage, sinking into his flesh easily.

Sasuke makes a sound like a kicked dog, one hand automatically moving to the wound while he tries to steady himself on a smaller tree with the other one. Blood trickles down beneath his fingers and onto his white pants.

“Did I hit a nerve, my cute students?”

Has Hatake’s voices always sounded that menacing? Haru isn’t sure, but the tone sends chills down his side.

He crouches there motionless, thinking about reaching for Sasuke but not knowing what to do. The wound needs medical attention, that’s for sure, but pulling the weapon out is a big no-no as they learnt in their basic medic class.

Beside him however, Sasuke is doing just that, reaching with his left hand to slowly pull the kunai out of his side. He leans against the tree for support, presses his left hand to the wound and holds the weapons with his bloody right, ready to attack.

 _Are you an idiot?_ Haru wants to shout, but no words come out when he opens his mouth. Instead he stands frozen on the spot. His hands are trembling around his down kunai, he notices belatedly.

Blood runs down Sasuke’s leg now. It looks bad.

Blood… is bad.

“Hatake-sensei,” he cries out, still not moving, still trembling. “Sasuke is hurt! We need to stop, he’s bleeding really badly!”

The leaves rustle somewhere to their right. Haru cringes back from the sound, only faintly hearing Sasuke hiss for him to take cover.

“This is what being a ninja is about, Haru-kun,” their teacher’s voice lectures from somewhere high up. “A ninja needs to be able to fight, even when they are wounded. The enemy won’t let you retread and get a medic just because you ask nicely.”

 _But isn’t a fight, this is training. You’re supposed to protect us!_ a voice inside his head screams. This isn’t fair, they can’t-

“Stay here!” Sasuke orders.

He has taken off one of his armguards while Haru wasn’t paying attention and wrapped it around his bleeding wound. The thins cloth isn’t helping much however, and Haru can see him shaking.

“Sasuke, you don’t have to-“

Before he can finish his sentence Sasuke has leapt out of the underbrush and is moving towards where Hatake’s voice came from.

 _He’ll die_ , Haru thinks. He sits on the forest floor, still trembling, unable to even pick up his own kunai. _This shouldn’t be happening_. He feels sick to the stomach.

Then there are sounds coming from the where Sasuke vanished to. Metal hits metal, multiple times. Sasuke _howls_ in pain a second later and Hatake _laughs_. It’s a high, amused sound and it makes Haru feels even more sick.

They are teammates. They are supposed to protect each other.

Sasuke is his teammate, as much as Naruto is, and he just went to fight their sensei while Haru crouches there uselessly. He’s dead weight. Even bleeding and in pain Sasuke is a better teammate than him.

Without noticing he has started to cry. _It’s not supposed to be this way!_ Naruto and Sasuke were nice to him, they were supposed to be his team, to help each other.

Another sound of pain echoes through the forest and before he knows what he’s doing Haru has gotten to his feet and is running towards his teammate.

“Stop!” he yells to the forest. “Leave him alone!”

There are shuriken in his hands now, the good ones that Sasuke gave him.

He rushes into the small clearing with his hands raised halfway and immediately throws the stars when he spots Hatake’s silvery grey hair standing over the prone, _bloodied_ form of Sasuke on the ground.

“Get away from him!”

The next thing he knows is that there is the hard, dry earth of the training beneath him and his green eyes are staring at the clear blue summer sky.

Haru sits up with a squeak, panicking, trying to grab his weapons, to orient himself. What did Hatake do to him? He needs to get back to the forest, he needs to protect Sasuke, to find Naruto and warn him. What is if their sensei has already gotten to him as well?

He tries to jump to his feet, only to realize that his hands and feet are bound. It makes him flop on the around like a fish on dry land, and someone chuckles beside him. Kakashi-sensei.

How did he-

“Genjutsu,” Haru mumbles. He would have hit himself over the head if it were possible. Of course, their teacher is a jounin, he must have put him under without Haru noticing… when? Before Sasuke appeard, he decides, maybe even before the moment the last Naruto clone disappeared.

“Mhm.” Hatake sighs. He picks the Haru bundle up with one swift movement and throws the boy over his shoulder. “You broke it when you were going to attack me. Way too late, you missed all the clues.”

Haru cringes. In retrospect his sensei is right. How didn’t he notice? There was no dirt at all on Sasuke, and there definitely should have been from having been buried in the training ground. Also Sasuke would have never pulled the kunai out of the wound like that. He’s a clan child, he should know better – their sensei has to know better than to let badly wounded genin fight as well. Sasuke is the last of the Uchiha, if anything happened to him there’d be hell to pay.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi-sensei,” he says, but the jounin doesn’t comment and instead carries him back to the main square of the training ground, where Sasuke and Naruto are bound to two of three wooden poles. They both look unhappy.

Sasuke _is_ dirty all over, and Naruto has leaves and twigs sticking to his messy blonde hair.

“You fail,” Hatake declares, the creepy smile back on his face. Even without the mask it’s clear to see. “Your teamwork was decent for fresh genin, but you hampered each other by not being aware of your teammate’s techniques at all.”

He looks at the singed sleeve of his left arm and has to agree. Then his teacher drops him in front of the last pole like a sack of rice and Haru winces when his ass hits the ground hard.

When he looks at Naruto and Sasuke they both stare at him with vaguely guilty looks. _Good_. It wasn’t him that suddenly started breathing fire or making dozens of apparently very advanced clones of himself.

“We will do this again tomorrow,” their sensei reveals. “And every day from now on until you three manage to get a bell from me… if you fail, you’ll be doing D ranks for the rest of the day. Clear?"

“Crystal,” Haru mutters, not caring about the dark look the man shoots him.

Naruto turns his head away, sulking, and Sasuke stares at the hard-packed dirt beneath his feet. _They hate losing_ , Haru thinks, but while he can relate this is stupid. Better they lose to their batshit crazy teacher inside the village than die to an actual enemy ninja outside of it.

Hatake stares them down.

“Look, we need to get better, okay?” Haru know he’s pleading, but he wants this to work so much. He became a real shinobi yesterday, his dream came true, and he won’t throw it away because his two teammates are too stubborn to admit that they lost.

Naruto looks at him first, his blue eyes staring at Haru as if he’s searching for something. He doesn’t know what it is, but he smiles hesitantly at the other boy.

“Fine,” Naruto finally says and sits up straighter against his pole. “We’ll get better and then we’ll beat you, sensei! You’ll see, we’ll be the best Konoha team ever!”

Sasuke rolls his eyes at Naruto’s tone, but at least doesn’t interrupt him.

He looks from one of them to the other and then uncrosses his arms from in front of his chest with a sound Haru doesn’t know how to interpret. Did Sasuke ever loose in anything before? There were smarter kids in the Academy, kids with better written scores like Haru himself, but Sasuke was always top at everything that had to do with fighting.

“Whatever the looser says, I guess.”

In an instant Naruto has whipped his head around to start arguing, but Kakashi-sensei is faster. He claps his hand together loudly.

“Now, since you’re all beat up and dirty anyway, we might as well continue training.”

All three of them grown in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haru isn't any better at genjutsu than Sakura. The difference between them is that he doesn't break down when he sees a wounded Sasuke because he doesn't have that romantic ideal about Sasuke being the best ninja ever in his head. For Haru Sasuke is a teammate, a teammate he somewhat likes, a teammate that he'll defend if it comes down to it.
> 
> As a unit, Team 7 still sucks. They have the potential to be better, to be _great_ , but they have that in the manga too. The difference will be in what they make of that potential.


End file.
